No more Chery J1

[The_Hawk]

It's not a VAG vehicle, and for anyone watching the market it's something that's been coming for a while... none the less I was interested to read this article today:

Australia’s cheapest car, the $9990 Chinese-made Chery J1, has been axed because of new safety laws.

It will be joined on the new-car sidelines by a Great Wall SUV in what is the latest hurdle for Chinese brands trying to establish themselves in the notoriously challenging Australian market.

Full story: Australia's cheapest car axed

[Mk3 AAA]

Why don't we just use Euro NCAP? Wouldn't it be more efficient? Although I don't know the Euro NCAP's current position on frontal impact. Curious more than dismissing reasons.

Wasn't a fan of the Great Wall (the actual Great Wall was amazing don't get me wrong), but I hope this puts pressure on Chinese manufacturers to make their cars safer, because we know they're going to end up here in big numbers at some point, and you know they'll work out how to make safety cheap (if it is a requirement to compete).

[Umai Naa!!]

Hooray!

Now to ban all the other unsafe garbage.

Should be 4 Star ANCAP rating MINIMUM!

They want to reduce the road toll and burden on our health systems, so this is a good place to start.

[The_Hawk]

It's sort of telling when a 1998 Golf has a better crash rating than brand new Chery J1

[Umai Naa!!]

It's sort of telling when a 1998 Golf has a better crash rating than brand new Chery J1

Yes, true. But bare in mind that they constantly move the goal posts. So while a MK3 Golf might've faired pretty back in '98, it might not fair so well now.

[GeckoZAO]

Uhhh, i feel a bit sad and disgraced...its been ages and they should make better vehicles now.
Geely and BYD are bigger and better than Chery...not sold here though.
a lot of Great Wall utes here, but didnt see many in Shanghai/China
I didnt see many Cherys on the road everytime i go back either, but hips BYDs, at least thats the case for Shanghai.
and of course, NO.1 market share is always taken by VW for the past 3 decades (or since when you could buy a car in China)...(FAW VW and Shanghai VW), thats the reason why you see a lot of Chinese people driving VWs here in Aus too.

[Transporter]

It's sort of telling when a 1998 Golf has a better crash rating than brand new Chery J1

I had an opportunity to do a service on Chery J1 for customer of mine who bought the car for his cleaning business.

I can tell you, if you saw the workmanship on the car and especially the welds on underbody, you would have to fire the technicians who gave such a car ADR approval. Yes, you would expect that Chinese (anybody these days) could know better how to join the components together.

Even not trained eye would have to see that the welds in the bellow pictures are very bad. With the joints not properly made and using the welding material as a filler. The engine cross member in that J1 is made from the metal tubing the same wall thickness as our Hills made garden cloth drier.

[Lucas_R]

What a pile of crap. My god - even i could weld better than that.

[Ideo]

Even I could weld better than that. And that is really saying something.

[Brendan_A]

Very surprised to see such poor welding coming from the Chinese.

We had half a dozen 2nd class welder China men working with us a few years back. They could lay a better weld then most of us Aussies!